Britain’s new foreign minister has insulted Obama, Clinton

The United Kingdom’s new foreign minister may have some relationships to repair with American leaders.

Boris Johnson, who was named the U.K.’s new foreign minister on Wednesday and was leading proponent of exiting the European Union, has a history of disparaging remarks toward U.S. President Barack Obama and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Johnson, the former mayor of London, wrote in an April column that Obama’s “part-Kenyan” ancestry predisposed him to anti-Britain views.

“Some said it was a snub to Britain,” he wrote about the disappearance of a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. “Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender.”

Johnson later said he had no regrets for the comments, which were criticized by many as racist. Obama, who clashed with Johnson when he spoke in favor of the U.K. staying in the European Union, said the Churchill bust remained in the White House, near his private office in the residence.

In 2007, Johnson lashed out at Clinton, saying she represented everything he entered politics to fight against.

“She’s got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital,” he wrote in The Telegraph.

In February 2015, however, Johnson met with Clinton in New York and expressed his surprise at her willingness to meet with him following those comments.

“It is an amazing measure of the goodness and generosity of Hillary Clinton’s spirit that she wants to see us in spite of those admittedly lighthearted remarks some years ago,” he told the Guardian.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Mark Toner appeared to be stifling a laugh when asked Wednesday about Johnson’s new role, but said the United States is “always going to be able to work with the British, no matter who is occupying the role of foreign secretary because of our deep abiding special relationship with the United Kingdom.